


Scream

by LaughingThalia



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-16 01:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7246030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the whole Justice League off-world Nightwing had been left in charge and trying to run the whole superhero net work whilst also tending to Bludhaven and Gotham was pretty hard, thankfully Aqualad and Batgirl were their to help him. </p><p>Nightwing sat in Mt Justice checking the police scanner and planning missions when a Gotham alert popped up. Scarecrow. He was a priority B, that meant that only Batman was supposed to deal with him. But Batman wasn't here and besides Nightwing was perfectly capable of fighting <em>Scarecrow</em> of all people.</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Unfortunately for our heroes everyone knows the moment you say you can do something no problem... there's a problem and for Nightwing that involves getting injected with some random substance that makes you hear the screams of everyone you've ever failed and more.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beating Up Villains 101

**Author's Note:**

> Young Justice characters:  
> Nightwing – Richard 'Dick' Grayson  
> Batgirl - Barbar Gordon  
> Artemis – Artemis Crock  
> Robin III - Timothy "Tim" Drake  
> Aqualad – Kaldur'uhm  
> Miss Martian – M'gann 'Megan' Morse  
> Zatanna -Zatanna Zatara  
> Impulse – Bart Allen  
> Superboy -Connor Kent  
> Blue Beetle -Jaime Reyes  
> Lagoon Boy - La'gaan  
> Beast Boy -Garfield Logan

With the whole Justice League off-world Nightwing had been left in charge and trying to run the whole superhero net work whilst also tending to Bludhaven and Gotham was pretty hard, thankfully Aqualad and Batgirl were their to help him. Nightwing sat in Mt Justice checking the police scanner and planning missions when a Gotham alert popped up. Scarecrow. He was a priority B, that meant that only Batman was supposed to deal with him. But Batman wasn't here and besides Nightwing was perfectly capable of fighting _Scarecrow_ of all people.

He zetaed into Gotham and started racing across the rooftops. He stopped abruptly, he couldn't run head first into a battle, Batman would kill him if he found out, he needed to get backup, he pulled out his communicator “Batgirl, Robin I'm in Gotham about to deal with Scarecrow I know he's priority B and Batman will flip his shit but we can't exactly wait for Batman to get back from space.”

Robin replied immediately “ Copy that Nightwing ETA like 1 second if I can bring Impulse.”

Nightwing sighed “Sure but tell him if he's enveloped by a nightmarish reality to stand completely still because I don't have time to deal with a fear toxined speedster, trust me it's not pretty.” He winced at the memory of Wally whimpering in fear and rushing around the place unpredictably.

Bart replied “Okay.”

Batgirl chipped in “If Robin gets to bring Impulse, I'm bringing Artemis.”

Robin and Impulse whooshed past Nightwing then circled round and stopped next to him “Well then I'm bringing Beastboy!” Robin said childishly

You could practically hear Batgirl frowning “No fair you have two people, I'm bringing Zatanna and Miss Martian!”

Nightwing scoffed sarcastically “Oh for God's sake just bring the whole team why don't you.”

When Batgirl didn't reply he sighed thinking she had realised she was being silly and had decided not to come with the whole female part of the Young Justice team.

So of course when the three boys turned up on the scene Nightwing was surprised and a little pissed that the literal whole team was there. He glared at Barbara “When I said to bring the whole team, I was being sarcastic.”

She smiled smugly “I know.”

Nightwing turned to the other more busy members who even had their own cities to protect with the Leaguers off-world and all “Do you guys not have whole cities to be protecting?”

Impulse grinned “The Rogues said they'd help me out.” **(BTW originally this line was for Kid Flash until I realised I hadn't mentioned him in any other chapter and this was actully set after he 'died' air quotes cuz I refuse to believe it)**

Nightwing face palmed “You're too friendly with guys who are meant to be your mortal enemies.” He looked around for classic signs that Scarecrow was around, people were sitting sobbing on the floor, some rocking back and forth, others silently screaming. Definitely fear gas. “Guys put on your gas masks and keep your guards up believe it or not, because Scarecrow is not someone to be messed with, always has some trick up his sleeve.”

“Glad you got that right bird boy.” Scarecrow emerged from the shadow “I see you brought in the cavalry just for little old me.” His smiled went from ear to ear almost literally “Unfortunately that wasn't needed. See I heard Batman was out of town and I figured Nightwing would respond to a high level villain like myself when daddy Bats isn't around. My master plan is specifically targeted to you Nightwing. You don't need these B-lister heroes cramping your style.”

Nightwing grumbled “I'll say.” to that last part before flipping into action, again literally. He pulled out his ecrisma sticks and they started duelling, Dick took a cheap shot at his groin and grinned when he doubled over in pain, he quickly kicked him down before he had time to recover and slammed his head into the ground to knock him unconscious “And that,” he turned to all the young heroes “is how you take down a villain!”

The police had turned up and had been surprised at the sheer number of young heroes milling about laughing and joking. Officer Jordie and his partner Officer Dunn raised their eyebrows at Nightwing “You teaching beating up villains 101?” Jordie asked sarcastically

Nightwing scoffed “Batman has it in his head that only he is qualified to fight Scarecrow so as procedure states whilst Batman's not here I had to tell Batgirl and Robin and they got into a fight about bringing the people who they were with at the time and then I snapped that she should just bring the whole team and it seems her way of paying me back is to literally bring the whole team.”

Dunn laughed “Woman! Am I right.”

Zatanna, Rocket, Artemis and Batgirl all looked at him and Rocket asked sassily “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing!” Officer Dunn tried to backtrack his statement “I just meant you're very good at plotting revenge. I mean that in a good way. It means you're smart. Not that you needed me to tell you that but you uuuh....” he trailed off as he realised all the girls were smirking at him “You guys are yanking my chain aren't you.”

Artemis laughed “Yup!” 

Scarecrow came too to find himself still on the floor his hands were handcuffed but no one was holding him, no one was even watching him. That was a big mistake. They were all looking (and laughing) at Officer Dunn talking to a bunch of female superheroes. He took the opportunity to carefully shimmy out the needle he had in his pocket and quietly stand up. In seconds he was standing behind Nightwing plunging the syringe into his neck and pushing the bright green liquid into his blood stream.

Nightwing yelped in surprised and immediately push him off he pulled out the syringe and tried to throw a punch at Scarecrow but then a horrible screaming filled his head. It sounded like his parents as they fell to their deaths, he faltered as that horrible memory came to the front of his mind and Scarecrow having both hands handcuffed together smacked both hands across Nightwing's face using that hesitation to his advantage. 

With the ringing in his ears from the blow to the head and the screaming in his mind he completely lost his bearings. What the heck was going on? The screaming intensified adding to the constant screaming with pleas for his help, cries to save their life, more screams and Nightwing couldn't take it, his hands flew to his ears in some attempt to block out the noise and he doubled over in pain. 

Having seen Nightwing looking completely out of it Batgirl, Robin and Artemis had jumped into the action to subdue The Scarecrow once again. Scarecrow let it happen and just laughed. It was a laugh so crazy and hysterical it rivalled The Joker.

Batgirl growled “What's so funny?!”

“My new toxin works! Nightwing is my first ginue pig but it works perfectly!” he turned to Nightwing who seemed to have gathered himself enough to look at Scarecrow “Who do you hear Bat Boy? Do you hear the screams of all the people you failed? All the people you let die? Ha!” Nightwing just glared at him, he wasn't going to give Scarecrow the satisfaction of knowing how true he was. “It won't stop by the way. I never thought that far ahead. You can't just remove it from your blood stream. The effects are permanent.”

This time Nightwing couldn't keep the emotion off his face, his eyes widened in dread and his gaze followed him as Officer's Dunn and Jordie led him out to their police car after patting him down and searching his pockets. The found two syringes filled with the green substance he had injected into Nightwing and gave one to Batgirl before bagging the other one for evidence.

Batgirl looked at Nightwing concerned “Nightwing, are you okay?”

He shook his head unable to speak just then because the overwhelming nature of the screaming “I...” He wanted to tell her about the screaming, about all the times he'd failed in his job to save people, about all the little kids who lost their parents to bad men despite the fact that he only became a vigilante to prevent that from happening ever again. He looked at her desperately trying to convey all this but with his mask on it was hard to tell. He collapsed on the floor and curled up into a ball trying to block it all out, trying to make it stop. He clenched his eyes shut and jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he hadn't heard anyone approach him.

Batgirl was crouching down next to him “Nightwing, talk to me. What's happening?”

“The screaming, can you not hear it? It's so loud.”

Batgirl frowned a bit “Nightwing there is no screaming.”

“There is. I can hear it.”

Robin pointed out “Babs, it must be the new toxin Scarecrow was talking about.”

Batgirl sighed “You mean the one with 'irreversible effects'”.

Artemis sighed “We should call Batman.”

Impulse scoffed “I wouldn't want to have to make that call.”

Batgirl sighed “And of course that responsibility falls to me.” She took out here holo-comm (hologram communicator) and called the Bat Wing she was surprised to see Superman, Martian Manhunter and Green lantern sitting in the Bat Wing along with those who couldn't fly in space (or at all). “Justice League... Batman we may have run into some... complications.”

“What happened?” Batman demanded

“Well we ran into Scarecrow and well he injected Nightwing with this new fear toxin but rather than make you hallucinate it makes you hear screams and stuff.” She made a random hand gesture at Robin and Robin got out his own Bat-syringe and jabbed it into Nightwing's arm “We're collecting blood samples to reverse the effect but uuum well Scarecrow says it's irreversible. Also Nightwing might be out of action for a bit....” 

Batman sighed “You, Aqualad and Artemis are in charge.”

Artemis exclaimed “Me?!”

“Batgirl and Aqualad don't know each other as well as you know them and they need someone unbiased to mediate between decisions.” He than added “Plus you're good with strategy and you've been part of this team for a long while.” 

Superman cut it in “We'll be back as soon as we can be but until then just try to keep everything under control.”

Batgirl nodded, determination evident in he voice, her resolve unbreakable, “We will.”


	2. Goodnight Bruce (Truth is I'm tired)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman, Dr Caitlin Snow and engineer Cisco Ramone (That's right I crossed the cartoons with the TV show) try to figure out what's wrong with Nightwing to no avail. Nightwing is already _tired_ of hearing those screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit (3rd June 2016): "Truth is I'm Tired" are lyrics from the song 'Take me to the King' by Tamela Mann

STAR Labs had run test after test and yet they had found absolutely “Nothing!” Exclaimed Dr Caitlin Snow “There's no trace of the toxin in your blood, no unusual brain activity, blood pressure is normal, heart rate is normal everything is normal! According to our tests you're perfectly healthy.” She shook her head “When all is said and done it can't be denied that the Scarecrow isn't a brilliant scientist.”

The head engineer Cisco Ramone scoffed “Yeah, it's too bad he's bat-shit crazy, pun intended.”

“That's the sad thing about Scarecrow. He could have ended up a brilliant scientist, he could have ended up here at STAR Labs but instead he's a psycho criminal.” Nightwing said tiredly.

Caitlin slammed down her folder of test results “rrrr I don't understand this. I think I need a second opinion.” 

Cisco got out his phone “You want me to call Dr Wells?”

Caitlin sighed “No he's working on the particle escalator, I'm sure we'll figure it out.” She picked up the folder again and placed it in the computer scanner “maybe the computer will pick up something.”

**TIME JUMP**

3 Hours later Caitlin Snow sighed “The machine did not pick up anything. Nightwing I'm sorry but I don't think STAR Labs can help you, at least not right away. I'll keep running tests but I think you should head home, get some rest.”

“Thanks for trying Caitlin, keep me updated.” Nightwing yawned (which caused Snow and Cisco to yawn) “bye guys.” He zetaed back to the cave

**LINE BREAK**

Batman whacked the side of the bat computer as it failed to find anything wrong with Nightwing. “God damnit!” He heard the distinct sound of a zeta beam behind him

“You having any luck down here? 'Cause the guys over at STAR can't find anything.” Nightwing asked wearily

Batman huffed and shook his head “Nothing. It's almost as if he injected you with water, or your own blood type.”

“How can this be possible? It's affecting me so strongly that there must be some trace of it but no one can find it!”

“I promise Dick, i'll find out what's wrong with you and I'll fix it.”

“Who's saying this? Bruce or Batman?”

“How about the worlds greatest detective?” Batman sent him a sly grin

“Well all things considered the best and most vain detective in the world is not the worst person to have on you side.”

“Hey, I didn't give myself the title of best detective!”

“Well you never debunked it! In fact you added fuel to the fire.”

Batman looked at his watch and frowned “It's almost 4 in the morning. I know we're late to sleep and early to rise but it's late even for us. What are you doing up?”

Nightwing shuffle don his feet looking awfully small, his eyes darted away from Batman's and focused on the huge dinosaur statue until the green colour reminded him of the Joker's hair and he focused on the giant penny instead. “Honestly? I don't think I could sleep. Not with this screaming.”

Bruce looked at him sadly, the way a father looked his son when he was in pain. He wanted to say something that would make everything alright, he wanted to make his little dickie bird happy again, wanted to pull him into a big hug and wrap him in his long black cape and have Dick fall alseep in his arms so he'd have to carry him to bed and Alfred would 'tsk' at him for keeping the young master up all night but he did none of that. Instead he simply asked “Do you want a sedative?”

Nightwing shook his head “I'm sure I'll manage.” He stood up slowly and made his way towards the bat-evator. As the doors closed Nightwing closed his eyes, rested his head on the cool surface and rubbed the bridge of nose. “Goodnight Bruce.”

The door closed

“Good night Dickie Bird.” Bruce whispered to himself wishing he could go back to before Dick became hardened by criminals they faced every night.


	3. Hush. Don't Speak.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why would Black canary sentence Nightwing to the torture that was team 'bonding' time?
> 
> And when did everyone get so loud?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N: This was actually the first scene of this story I wrote. It was originally going to be a one shot but then I started thinking about how he managed to get this screaming thing in his head in the first place and the long term affects it would have on him so I thought 'why not make it a full length fic, I'll just finish writing it before I upload so that I won't be rushed to finish it.**
> 
> Edit (03/07/2016)(DD/MM/YYYY): "Hush, Don't Speak" was inspired by the song La La La by Naughty Boy and Sam Smith cuz those are lyrics in the song.

The team sat in the cave's lounge room. Superboy was yelling at Beastboy and Impulse to turn the TV from their loud video game and back to static and they were ignoring him and yelling at the screen and at each other. 

Blue Beetle and Lagoon Boy were arguing about which was cooler flying or swimming.

Robin and Miss Martian were exchanging cooking tips but couldn't hear each other over the rest of the noise in the room and were subsequently yelling at each other.  
Zatanna was trying to practise some spells. Keyword: trying.

Rocket was listening to music on her phone without headphones and Batgirl was listening to a whole different genre of music again without headphones.  
Nightwing sat on the couch rubbing his temples as his headache got larger and larger. 

He would have left the room ages ago had it not been for Black Canary and Red Tornado basically keeping them prisoner so they could 'bond as a team'. He had tried to tell Dinah that his head was already killing him but she told him to suck it up and stop being an anti-social bat. 

Nightwing's eye twitched in annoyance as Rocket listened to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off for the 5th time in a row (you'd think someone as awesome as her would at least listen to some better music) [ **no offence to any Swifties out there** ] Barbara was listening to Trap Queen by Fetty Wap, despite not being in his usual genres, it was a song he liked, but not right now. _Right now_ he couldn't stand it. 

He scrunched his eyes shut as he heard the gun's and the shooting from Call of Duty and Superboy's incessant yelling, when did he get so loud? Was it a kryptonian thing?. 

His arm twitched uncomfortably as he caught snippets of the _'flight V swimming: Dawn of a headache'_ argument mixed with backwards words and mini explosions and random shit whizzing about the overcrowded room when spells went wrong or if Zatanna got distracted from the noise.

He heard Artemis walk in, she had been at Wally's grave so Dinah had allowed her to come late, and yell at them all to be quite but that only made it louder as everyone yelled back at her to shut up before going back to whatever noise making activity they were previously indulging in. _That was it_. He leapt up from his seat.

“WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP! Do you fucktards do anything other than >em> scream at each other I mean _SERIOUSLY_ is it too much to ask for? Because maybe you have all fucking forgotten but I have non-stop _screaming_ in my head and you guys yelling at each other for no fucking reason is not helping so for once in your god damn lives would you shut _up_!” Everyone fell silent. The only sound was the video game on the screen (which BB and Impulse had just lost thanks to the distraction) and Nightwing's heavy panting. He stared at everyone's shocked faces, he rarely swore and here he was swearing several times in one (angry) speech. He sat back down and rubbed the bridge of his nose “I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I didn't mean that.”

Barbara was the first to speak “No Nightwing, you're right. We forgot what you were going through, that was insensitive and selfish of us. We're sorry. ”

Nightwing sighed and moved his hands from the bridge of his nose to his temples and slowly massaged them, he stood up again much more calmly this time “I'm going to go see if Canary will let me go.” He went to the door to find Canary sitting on a chair with her feet propped up on a table and her laptop on her lap, she was eating some popcorn as if watching an interesting soap opera. He looked at her laptop to find the lounge room he had just been in on the screen “Are you spying on us?”

Dinah jumped. She slammed her laptop shut and her popcorn fell on the floor. “Dick! Um – I mean Frick....” She glanced around to make sure no other YJ members were about and she hadn't just given up his secret identity “....How much of that did you see?”

He raised an eyebrow “Enough for you to let me leave that lounge without an argument.”

“Okay then... off you go.” He smiled softly at her, grateful, and started to his room “Oh and Dick?”

“Yeah?”

“You know you can talk to me right? Not just as the team therapist but as family.”

Nightwing snorted “My family doesn't exactly talk.”

“Then as a friend.” She corrected trying not to think of Alfred and Barbara giving Bruce, Tim and Dick an intervention.

“I know Dinah.”

“Good.”


	4. Clarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scarecrow figured out how to stop the screaming but he's not willing to share this vital piece of information with our Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title inspired by the song Clarity. Because I just realised chaps 2-4 all have song lyrics or titles in them.

Nightwing held his two batons in his hand as he glared at Scarecrow from across the hall of toxic waste craters. His newest ingredient for his fear toxin no doubt (or maybe they had always contained it and he had forgotten) "Boy Wonder we meet once again."

"Yeah and I'm about to kick your ass again." Nightwing said cockily

"You act as if you came out of our last fight victorious.”

“Well you were behind bars. That's a victory in my books.”

And now you have eternal screaming in your head,” He scoffed “Yes what a win. Your denial of the truth just means my plan is working."

"What plan?"

"It's been four months now. You should be desperate enough."

"Desperate enough for what? What's your plan?" Scarecrow snapped his fingers and Nightwing froze , his eyes widened and for a long moment Dick forgot how to breath "You- you-” he tried to get out once his lungs had started working again “You stopped the screaming."

"That's right. Now if you let me go willingly you can stay scream free." He smiled smugly “We could make a deal.”

Nightwing relished the silence "I can think clearly for once."

"And you could stay that way, if we made a deal I wouldn't go back on it." Scarecrow teased

Nightwing stared at him wistfully "Absolutely not.” His face hardened “There's no way I'm freeing you! I don't make deals with- with maniacs!"  
“Have it your way.” He shrugged nonchalantly then clicked his fingers once again and Nightwing's eyes flared as the screaming started again louder than before it seemed. He fell to the floor in agony and curled up in the foetal position with his hands over his ears. Scarecrow crouched next to him “It's too bad Boy Blunder, it seems I'm going to go free either way.” Nightwing reached out a hand to attack him or grab him or do anything to stop him from escaping, he didn't even know what he was trying to do but Scarecrow laughed at his weak attempt and swatted his hand away with ease “Consider yourself lucky I don't kill you.” He stood up still laughing. “We'll meet again Nightwing and when we do I hope you'll make the right decision.” Then he was gone leaving the Ex-Robin to wallow in pain on the floor.  
When the Batman arrived to find his ex-protégé curled up on the ground he sighed and softly scooped him up into his arms. He was met outside by the paparazzi camera's flashing and (ironically) The Flash himself. “Flash. Could you...” He trailed off lifting Nightwing slightly to emphasise what he wanted.  
Barry nodded “Course Bats.” Nightwing exchanged hands and then they were gone in a flash back to the safety of the Bat cave.


	5. I'm Like A Fire Cracker (Adrenaline Moving Through My Veins)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dick is starting to loose his grip on his sanity and verbally lashes out at Robin III, then decides to go fight Scarecrow because everything bad about his life right now stems from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is lyrics from Britney Spears' Circus.   
> Because now I'm making a conscious effort to name my titles with specific songs in mind.

**FLASH BACK**   
_“You're such a circus freak!” Matt Sloan yelled kicking a 11 year old Dick Grayson in the stomach as he lay on the floor in the Boys toilets_

_“You think Bruce Wayne loves you? Likes you even? He doesn't you're a charity case! He felt sorry for you!” Octavian Dumah one of Gotham's alumni joined in, planting a foot on Dick's head and laughing when Dick struggled to get out from underfoot._

_“He doesn't like you at all it's a publicity stunt so he seems more likable!” Jason Saintcloud (Silver Saintcloud's son) laughed_

_“His PR manager probably arranged it.” Matt Sloan added_

_Octavian sniggered “We should give him a swirly.”_

_Jason looked unsure “I don't know guys. My mum is friends with Bruce Wayne. If he squeals I'll be in trouble.”_

_Octavian crouched next to Dick “You won't squeal will you? Because you know what happens to tattle tales.”_

_“I won't tell! I swear!” Dick squealed_

_Matt grinned “Of course you won't.” He grabbed one of his arms and Jackson grabbed the other, they dragged him to the worst toilet cubicle and laughed as he tried to thrash out of their grip. Octavian pushed his head under the scummy water and Dick almost puked and the shear nastiness of that toilet.  
After several of these with Richard screaming and struggling they pushed Dick on the floor and left him shivering on the ground. The bell rang. Great, now he'd have to explain why he was late for his next lesson and dripping wet._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

“Dick?” Tim waved his hand in front of his older brother's face “Earth to Dick! Anyone home?”

Nightwing shook himself out of the memory “I'm sorry, what?”

“I was asking if you thought my flips had improved but I guess you didn't see them.” He stepped back into the training area and clicked his knuckles “I'll do it again, tell me if it's Robin worthy.”

Nightwing wasn't sure what had happened one minute he was about to watch his little bro and predecessor do flips and the next he found himself filled with a rage he couldn't even understand “Stop trying to be him!”

**FLASH BACK**

_“Uuuum Dick?”_

_“Yeah Todd?”_

_“Do you um.. do you think my flip was Robin worthy?” Jason asked hesitantly_

_Dick smiled “Definitely. You were great J-bird.”_

_“Don't call me that Dickie-Bird.”_

_The two laughed hysterically as if they had said the funniest and most original jokes._

_“But seriously Jason, you're going to be a great Robin.” He raised his eyebrows in jest “Hopefully the last Robin.”_

**TIME JUMP**

_Batman walked into the cave carrying the bloody battered body of the second Robin. Nightwing screamed in agony “NO! Jason! Oh God Jason please wake up! You can't be dead!”_

_Bruce started “Dick I'm sorry I tried-”_

_“I told you not to take in another Robin! This is on you! You just take kids who should be living their lives and you turn them into weapons and when they are no longer of use you toss them aside until they can deal with themselves! It's what you did with me and it's what you did with him and now he's dead! It's on you! ”_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Him and Bruce had never spoken about what he had said that day. Dick wasn't even sure what he had meant, he knew Bruce didn't just ditch him but sometimes he felt like Bruce didn't see him as a protégé, a son, a partner or even a sidekick. It seemed like he was just another tool in Bruce's belt, another weapon in his arsenal, to be discarded when his usefulness has passed. “Stop trying to be a Robin.”

“What?” Asked Tim confused by the sudden switch in moods

“You can't just put on the suit and call yourself Robin! Robin was _my_ name! Robin was _Jason's_ name! You are no Robin! Bruce doesn't like you!You're just a charity case who he felt sorry for! You're just another weapon in his arsenal and as soon as you're no longer of use he'll toss you aside to fend for yourself or you'll die or you'll wish you would! Don't you get it? Bruce doesn't care about you! ” he stared at Tim and Tim stared at him and then Tim's bottom lip started quivering and his eyes started swelling with water “Oh my God Tim... Tim I didn't mean-” Tim turned around and Nightwing reached out to stop him “Tim! I'm sorry!” But he ran to the bat-evator and Nightwing fell back into his chair “Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me!” The bat computer blinked and he looked at the alert **'Scarecrow has been spotted in down town Gotham'.** That was what was wrong with him. Scarecrow and his screams inside his head _every second of every day_ for more than half a year. He remembered what he had said last time they had met   
_“We'll meet again Nightwing and when we do I hope you'll make the right decision.”_  
Nightwing had an idea and it certainly wasn't the right decision but another thing he had said last time was   
_“You should be desperate enough."_  
Scarecrow was right, he was desperate enough. Just not desperate enough to free him. No not at all, he was desperate enough to kill him.

He forgot about the Robin problem and ran past the giant penny and the dinosaur statue, the violent green hardly registered in his one track mind. He jumped on his bike grabbing a knife he had confiscated from a criminal a while ago that had made its way into Batman's trophy room.


End file.
